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Extended Needs

Cooperation can be structurally sufficient and still feel brittle, unfair, or exhausting.

The Core Model defines the minimum cooperative needs required for work to function (Level 2 of the Pyramid):
Shared Understanding, Mutual Commitment, Feedback Loops, Distribution of Roles, Autonomy & Agency.

Extended Needs describe the deeper human and systemic requirements that influence:

  • how cooperation is experienced,
  • how motivation is sustained, and
  • how resilient the system is under stress.

These needs are not part of the minimal HCS Matrix.
Cooperation can function without them, but it will often feel strained, transactional, or fragile.

Extended Needs are:

  • classified as Collective or Individual, and
  • organized into five functional categories.

Each need can be examined through potential political and psychological impact vectors to understand how it becomes distorted under tension.

Extended Needs complement the Extended Conditions by focusing on what people and groups seek, not just what context they inhabit.

Core vs Extended Needs

It is important to distinguish:

  • Core cooperative needs (Level 2 of the Pyramid)
  • Shared Understanding
  • Mutual Commitment
  • Feedback Loops
  • Distribution of Roles
  • Autonomy & Agency

These are the minimal human requirements for cooperation to function at all.

  • Extended Needs (this section)
  • Purpose & Direction
  • Trust & Safety
  • Growth & Evolution
  • Recognition & Belonging
  • Autonomy & Coherence

These are deeper motivational needs that shape the quality and emotional tone of cooperation.

Core Needs answer:

“Do people have enough to participate in cooperation sustainably?”

Extended Needs answer:

“Does this cooperation feel meaningful, fair, and worth sustaining over time?”

Both are real. Only the first group is encoded in the Core Model.

Collective vs Individual Needs

Extended Needs arise at two connected levels:

  • Collective Needs
    Shared meaning, fairness, legitimacy, and identity.
    These shape how groups hold purpose together and maintain cohesion during change.

  • Individual Needs
    Personal motivation, recognition, autonomy, and emotional safety.
    These shape how each person engages with cooperation and interprets their role in it.

Both levels interact continuously:

  • When collective needs weaken, individuals disengage or protect themselves.
  • When individual needs are chronically unmet, collective dynamics destabilize.

Extended Needs help practitioners see both levels without collapsing everything into “culture” or “attitude”.

Types of Extended Needs

Extended Needs fall into five categories that influence motivation, coherence, and resilience within cooperative systems.

Purpose & Direction

Needs related to meaning, intention, and contribution.

Collective Needs

  • Shared sense of purpose
  • Legitimacy of direction and goals
  • Relevance of the work to a broader context
  • Identity as a group with a coherent mission

Individual Needs

  • Personal meaning in the work
  • Sense of contribution to something valuable
  • Alignment between values and daily actions
  • Clarity about “why my role matters”

Political impact:
Who defines purpose, whose interests shape direction, which voices are included or excluded when goals are set.

Psychological impact:
Pride, commitment, and energy when needs are met; disillusionment, cynicism, or loss of meaning when they are not.

Trust & Safety

Needs related to vulnerability, honesty, and perceived security.

Collective Needs

  • Systemic fairness (rules apply consistently)
  • Transparent communication about risks and constraints
  • Predictable commitments and follow-through
  • Safety in raising issues or challenging assumptions

Individual Needs

  • Psychological safety in conversations and decisions
  • Confidence that honesty does not result in punishment
  • Predictability in key relationships
  • Emotional security when facing uncertainty or change

Political impact:
Fear of retaliation, status risk, exclusion, and invisible power; “safe for some, dangerous for others.”

Psychological impact:
Anxiety, withdrawal, defensiveness, or hypervigilance when safety is low; openness and calm engagement when safety is high.

Growth & Evolution

Needs related to improvement, mastery, and progression.

Collective Needs

  • Shared learning rhythms (retrospectives, reviews, open dialogue)
  • Integration of insights into future work, not just storing them
  • Collective progression toward greater mastery
  • Capacity to adapt without losing coherence or identity

Individual Needs

  • Skill development and increasing mastery
  • Constructive feedback and support
  • Opportunities for growth or new challenges
  • A sense of becoming “better over time”

Political impact:
Whose growth is prioritized, who gets opportunities, who is “invested in” vs merely “used”.

Psychological impact:
Stagnation, frustration, or quiet resignation when needs are unmet; motivation and engagement when growth is visible and supported.

Recognition & Belonging

Needs related to appreciation, inclusion, and social identity.

Collective Needs

  • Culture of appreciation, not just criticism
  • Inclusion mechanisms that ensure representation and voice
  • Fair allocation of credit and visibility
  • Shared rituals that build connection and identity

Individual Needs

  • Feeling valued and seen as a person, not just a resource
  • Belonging to the group without constant self-protection
  • Recognition for contributions and effort
  • Acceptance without needing to constantly prove worth or status

Political impact:
Favoritism, visibility bias, gatekeeping, and “inner circles”.

Psychological impact:
Loneliness, envy, shame, loss of identity, or over-identification with status; versus a grounded sense of being part of “us”.

Autonomy & Coherence

Needs related to freedom, agency, and alignment.

Collective Needs

  • Coherent decision-making across roles and teams
  • Boundary clarity between functions and responsibilities
  • Distributed authority that matches real responsibility
  • Consistency of decisions with stated principles and strategy

Individual Needs

  • Freedom to make informed decisions in one’s domain
  • Sense of agency and ownership over outcomes
  • Space to act without micromanagement
  • Clarity about how personal choices affect the whole system

Political impact:
Overreach, territorialism, centralization of control, and token autonomy.

Psychological impact:
Dependency, helplessness, reactive resistance, or burnout when needs are unmet; grounded confidence and initiative when they are met.

Why Extended Needs Matter

Extended Needs explain variation in motivation, engagement, and cooperation quality that structural models alone cannot capture.

They highlight why teams with the same processes and structures can behave very differently, and why cooperation often degrades slowly rather than collapsing suddenly:

  • from committed to compliant,
  • from transparent to guarded,
  • from adaptive to rigid,
  • from “we” to isolated “me”.

Understanding Extended Needs helps practitioners:

  • See the difference between structural alignment and human experience.
  • Avoid over-focusing on tools or processes when motivation or meaning is the root issue.
  • Detect early signals of disengagement, resentment, or quiet fragmentation.
  • Choose the right level of intervention: individual, relational, collective, or structural.
  • Recognize when political or psychological distortions, not just process gaps, are driving behavior.

Extended Needs make the human dimension of cooperation explicit without inflating the Core Model.
They prepare the ground for System Modes, where teams decide how to act on these insights over time — whether to design, stabilize, grow, resolve conflict, or reset the cooperation system.